MALACHI 4
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall [and gambol as calves of the stall -RV]
Now, as Paul ... illustrates the resurrection of the dead, by a comparison with the mode of the growth of grain, it necessarily follows that if we would the better understand the details in connection with the rising of the one, we must examine the known facts of the other.
A grain of wheat is composed of two parts-the outer, or the body, and the inner, or the germ, which is the vital principle of the grain; and without which it would be impossible for germination, and consequent reproduction, to take place. When placed in the ground, the body of the grain corrupts, but the germ remains, and from that germ springs up the future body.
Now, what is there in man that corresponds to the germ of the seed?
...In John v. 24, Jesus says
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life." Again, (John vi. 63, ) "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (viii. 31.)-If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (xi. 25.)-"He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; whosoever believeth and liveth in me, shall never die."
The truth, then, is the vital principle corresponding to the germ; and on examination, we find that this correspondence is a most complete and striking one.
As with the grain, so with the body of the believer; placed in the ground, the body decays and is destroyed; but is the truth, however weakly possessed by that body, destroyed also? Apparently so, as in the case of the germ; but in reality it is not. The connection between the dead body and the truth that inhabited it, is written in the eternal memory of God, and in the eye of God remains, and hallows as it were, the very dust of the believers, which, when the proper time arrives, will by the power of God, revivify the dust, and bring back the life possessed before.
And when will that time be? We are aware that in order to cause the seed to germinate, the heat of the sun and the fertilizing influence of the showers are absolutely necessary. And in this respect the analogy is maintained. Christ is the sun and the fertilizing shower, who will quicken the germinating power of the truth into action, and restore the dead and perished body once more to life.
... Malachi says,
"Unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;"
and the Psalmist, speaking of this sun of righteousness, exclaims.
"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth."
Ambassador of the Coming Age, Dec 1868
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
TO build a house and to carry it on are two different things. They are the different things represented by the works respectively of Moses and the prophets. Both are works of God, but differing vastly in character and calibre.
It is said to be one of the works of God by Christ that he will
"plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth" (Isaiah 51:16).
This, in the language of figure, is what God did by Moses for the nation of Israel at the beginning. Whereas before the time of Moses Israel was a mere race sojourning in an alien land, in subjection to the laws of Egypt, after him Israel was a nation having defined and established institutions of their own, and dwelling in a country which they had subjugated and which they were able to defend.
The prophets had nothing to do with establishing this great work. The work once done was done for ever. No one could come after Moses in the doing of it. It was a maxim of the constitution,
"Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish aught therefrom,"
and to this day it remains unaltered as it came from the hands of Moses. The system of things established by Moses has been destroyed, and the "prophet like unto Moses" will "restore again," "restitute," and "regenerate" the thing destroyed. But so far as setting it up in the first instance was concerned, Moses alone was the "mediator of the first covenant."
As such, he had direct dealings with God such as none who came after him except Christ:
"There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord (Yahweh) knew face to face" (Deut. 34:10).
The Christadelphian, June 1898
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great AND dreadful day of Yahweh:
It would seem from the testimony of Malachi, who prophesied concerning the ten tribes, that while they are in the wilderness of the people they will be disciplined by the law of Moses as their national code, while things concerning Jesus will be propounded to them as matter of faith; for it is testified by Hosea that they shall be gathered, and
"shall sorrow a little for the burden of the King of princes" (Hos. 8:10).
The person with whom they will have more immediately to do in their second exodus is Elijah. There would seem to be a fitness in this.
In the days of their fathers, when they forsook the Lord and abolished the law of Moses, Elijah was the person whose ministerial life was occupied in endeavouring to
"restore all things."
Though he did much to vindicate the name and law of Yahweh, he was taken away in the midst of his labours. For what purpose? That he might at a future period resume his work and perfect it by restoring all things among the ten tribes according to the law of Moses, preparatory to their being planted in their land under a new covenant to be made with them there (Mal. 4:4-6; Jer. 31:31).
But it may be objected, that Elijah has come already, and that John the baptist was he. True, in a certain sense he was. John was Elijah to the house of Judah in the sense of his having come
"in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17).
But John was not the Elijah who talked with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration. The latter is Elijah to the house of Israel. The scribes taught that Elijah must precede Christ; which Jesus approved, saying
"Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things."
He said this after John was put to death. John did not restore all things; but Elijah will, and that too before the Lord Jesus makes himself known to the ten tribes, whom he will meet in Egypt.
The period of Israel's probation drawing to a close, they will have advanced as far as Egypt on their return to Canaan, as it is written, "They shall return to Egypt" (Hos. 8:13). This is necessary, for it is written also in more senses than one,
"Out of Egypt have I called my son."
As they are to be gathered from the west, north, and east, they will have gone through the countries by a circuitous route to Egypt. They are to be gathered from Assyria, or the countries of Gogue's dominion; but I have not yet discovered in the word the line of march they are to follow in arriving at Egypt.
But that they are to be assembled there is certain; for it is written,
"I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt."
This was spoken some two hundred years after the overthrow of Samaria; and it is indisputable that neither Israel nor Judah have been again brought out of Egypt to inhabit their land: the exodus from Egypt is therefore still in the future. But in coming out of Egypt they will have to cross both the Nile and the Red Sea; and although their march thither will have been one of conquest, it will not have been unattended with defeat, because of their own rebelliousness. The hearts of their enemies will be hardened to their own destruction to the last conflict.
The south will still be disposed to "keep back" Israel from their country. Therefore, in leaving Egypt,
"Ephraim shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away" (Zech. 10:10,11).
The combined forces of Egypt and Assyria shall be broken as the hosts of Pharoah, and the horse and the rider be drowned in the depths of the sea. For
"the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make Israel go over dry shod. . . . like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (Isaiah 11:15,16).
They will now sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb, who will have given them such a mighty deliverance from all their enemies. Being now
"the ransomed of the Lord, they shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads."
The prophet, "like unto Moses," mightier than Joshua, and "greater than Solomon," will conduct them into the Holy Land; and, having delivered to them the New Covenant, will "settle them after their old estates." Having "wrought with them for his own name's sake," and by them as his "battle-axe and weapons of war, subdued the nations, and brought them to his holy mountain, he will "accept them there," and
"there shall all, the house of Israel, all of them in the land," as one nation and one kingdom under Shiloh "serve the Lord God" (Ezek. 37:21-28; 20:40; 34:22-31).
Thus in forty years the little kingdom of Judea will have become
"a great mountain," or empire filling the whole earth."
Elpis Israel 3.6.